Thousands of heart-risk children to be put on statins

Under guidelines approved on Tuesday, those young as two will be screened for the inherited cholesterol disorder.

The children could then be put on statins, which can help prevent premature heart disease.

Children from the age of two will be screened for the genetic cholesterol disorder FH, which increases the risk of heart disease

Those with familial hypercholesterolaemia have genetic defects which stop the body removing harmful cholesterol from the bloodstream.

The disorder affects about 110,000 Britons, but only 15,000 have been diagnosed.

Siblings and children of those with the condition have a 50 per cent risk of inheriting it.

FH results in unusually high cholesterol levels from birth. But it often goes unnoticed until sufferers reach their 30s or 40s.

Then, the first symptom could be a heart attack  -  which may be fatal.

If untreated, half of men with FH will have a heart attack by 50.

A third of women will have one by 60.

Latest guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence recommend that anyone with very high cholesterol levels is tested for the condition.

Relatives who might also be affected could then be screened, including children under ten.

And in the next five years, doctors plan to screen the parents, siblings, children and grandchildren of those known to have the condition.

This is the first attempt to run a co- ordinated screening programme to detect the disorder.

Experts hope to identify up to 100,000 with the condition.

They estimate that up to a quarter of new diagnoses will be among under-18s.

FH can be controlled by changes in lifestyle and diet, such as introducing semi-skimmed milk instead of full-fat for those over two.

It is already recommended that those as young as eight with FH are prescribed statins for the rest of their lives.

Dr Dermot Neely, of the cholesterol-charity Heart UK, said: 'We need to identify FH as early as possible to treat in childhood to prevent heart attacks in early adulthood.'

He said the screening would not be unduly expensive and would save money in the long term.

But Dr David Wald, a consultant cardiologist at Bart's and the London, Queen Mary's School of Medicine, said the type of screening proposed would not find all cases of FH.

He wants all children to be screened for FH before their tenth birthday.

Dr Alan Rees, chairman of Heart UK, said it was a 'disgrace' that the NHS had diagnosed so few people with FH so far, claiming the screening record of other countries put Britain 'to shame'.

Dr Gillian Leng, deputy chief executive at NICE, said: By offering treatment as soon as possible, unnecessary and untimely deaths will be prevented.'